Tag Archives: Skydiving

On 8 June this year, my friend Jake Simkins was killed BASE jumping in Greece. I attended his funeral this afternoon, where I agreed to share this photo from our skydiving trip to Portugal in 2009: In a world of near-universal anxiety and neurosis, Jake chose to live life fully. A poem by Jake was read this afternoon which ended: It’s a pity that I can’t sit just here, And think about my death of fear. Jake leaves behind a wonderful […]

Via TED talks (“Ideas worth spreading”), Yves Rossy talks about flying as only he can: TED is well-worth keeping an eye on for “Riveting talks by remarkable people, free to the world”. TED began as a conference bringing together people from Technology, Entertainment and Design. Occasionally, a politician speaks at their events: here’s Rory Stewart calling for an end to the war in Afghanistan.

Here’s the proof (I’m second from bottom): In the last year, I had only jumped 10 times: politics had simply consumed all my time. Eventually, I decided I had to keep on living, so I put in a short weekend’s jumping. The country’s problems are huge. They were before I was an MP and they will be afterwards. In the meantime, now and then, I am going to keep making time to live.

I enjoyed two skydives at Weston on the Green this afternoon, in cloudless skies. For the first, I floated out stable, looking up at the plane, before surveying from freefall the constituencies represented by John Howell MP and the Prime Minister. It’s a slightly flat landscape for my liking. For the second, I exited sitfly before rolling onto my back. My transitions are still unstable and I back-flipped several times before spinning wildly upside down. Tunnel time required perhaps… I […]

I have learned that the British Parachute Association‘s magazine, Skydive, is featuring me next month, including this photo: There’s a rumour that I may be the first skydiving MP. I don’t know if it is true but, in any event, I wish I had more time for it. The sky is looking particularly spectacular at the moment. Hey ho – perhaps next weekend…

Once the wind subsided, we had a great day. Eight jumps, knocked out as fast as possible: first an eight-way, then five-ways when three lads left for the airport. More photos when I’m not behind a filter blocking flickr.

Skydive Empuriabrava occasionally suffers a phenomenon knows as the “Tramontana”: a strong wind from the mountains. It’s been blowing since we arrived on Wednesday but it is forecast to subside today or tomorrow. In the meantime, this is as close as I’ll get to a skydive: It’s still a great place to be and, with broadband available, I can get some work done. Maybe tomorrow… Oh, and I recommend lunch here: View Larger Map